Congrats tris... your pic is gorgeous!! sorry to hear you were ill. that always sucks on vacation but even more for your wedding. glad that everything went well. your review is fantastic and it's great to know that GBPJ is so helpful. very reassuring for those of us still waiting for our day...

when did you get to meet with the minister to talk about your ceremony? what was his name? Chandlyn gave me something, and now I can't find it, about "Owen", not sure if that's the first or last name but I seem to remember somebody on here some time back talking about him and that he was really great.

did any of your guests try the Garden Grill? that's where we're having our reception but I haven't seen much about it here. my FI is not a fan of italian, so it wasn't an option for us but I can't seem to get any reviews of the restaurant...

anyway, congrats. glad it all worked out and I hope you're feeling better!!

Originally Posted by tris

Hey Ladies!!! I am back home

Our wedding was beautiful. Everything we could have ever hoped for. I know all of us at one point questioned booking with the GBP because of communication issues but honestly I don't regret it one bit. Once you get there and meet with Chandlyn & Donnalee you see how ridiculously busy they are and you completely understand. They are both the sweetest, most patient ladies.

I'll share some of my thoughts from the day and I'll be sure to give you all pics as soon as I've got them! I was dreadfully sick for 4 days (the 2nd of them was my wedding day, and the 3rd, and worst, was when we did our TTD *sad*)

Firstly, DON'T STRESS the small stuff. My husband (weeirrrd) and I spent the last few weeks before the wedding stressing over getting menus, wedding favours, centerpieces, etc done and in the end it really meant nothing... the best bit of advice I can give is trust that everything will be alright, because it will be

Okay, so onto my thoughts.

- I never thought this would be one of my favourite things about my wedding but honestly the minister was amazing. We had written our own vows and our own script and last minute decided to scrap it and go with what he had. He asked us how religious we wanted it and we told him somewhere in the middle... our grandparents appreciated it. This man was amazing. He was so sweet and pulled us in the end and gave us the most beautiful advice. Don't be scared of the script. It's beautiful and simple. He didn't do any scripture, and he spoke about the ocean and how relatives who passed on were still with us (super special for FI who lost his grandma this past year). And after we said our vows he said to my DH "and now she's yours forever". It was really sweet.

- We were dummies and misunderstood to meet in the lobby so we were late for the wedding! Haha. I joked with DH that I wasn't showing up

- We didn't use the resort photog. We brought our own and she was a dream. (I'll leave you with one teaser pic she sent us). As I said before I was super sick but still decided to go with our full day TTD we had planned. I had to cut it short because I was literally puking in the trees every 10 minutes, but props to DH for still kissing me in pics! Haha. We didn't get all the pics we wanted, but what can you do.

- Tai Flora was great. Flowers were all awesome and came on time.

- We brought our own centerpieces, programs, menus, etc (pretty much everything) and the planners were awesome about it. I sent my bridesmaid and our best man to help set things up (with diagrams), but otherwise they did everything. Donnalee even told me that she wanted to hire me to decorate her house. She said that they do a LOT of weddings (there were THREE on my day alone) and she had never seen someone put so much into it and come with such beautiful decorations. Aww <3

- We hired the steel drum band to play our ceremony. Worth all $400. All our guests loved it and you can't really describe walking down the aisle to steel drums. We never got a list of songs but we decided when we got there.. they played "one love" by bob marley for the wedding party & pachabels cannon for me. After the ceremony they played for another half hour or so and everyone loved it.

- We switched to the free package. Everything was great. Minister fees were $200, Steel Drum $400, flowers were $300(ish), and we had 2 extra guests ($50). We didn't do chair ties, Jamaica is beautiful enough

- I wasn't going to get my hair done but after talking to some brides and feeling the WIND I booked an appointment. Without a trial it was $66... I didn't want to waste vaca time with a hair trail so I trusted her. I'm pretty fussy about my hair but she honestly did a fantastic job. Pretty much exactly what I wanted, and they use a spray there that they joked was "cement spray". Hair didn't move, haha. My bridesmaids actually did their own hair then went down and tipped her $10 to spray the crap out of their hair too. She loved it. My hair was still good for our TTD the next day, no lies.

- Our dinner was the Italian. The food was great. They set up 2 tables of 8 plus a sweetheart table for us. We did speeches. I'm glad we did. Everyone cried... it was wonderful. They didn't seat anyone around us until we were almost done eating so we never noticed. For our size group it wasn't worth it to book the restaurant out. Our cake was vanilla raspberry, so good, but I'm not really a cake person, and I couldn't really enjoy any of the food because I was sick, but everyone told me it was great.

- We didn't book the gazebo. After the dinner we went to the disco but were dissapointed that they wouldn't play our ipod of music. Honestly the DJ was awful. His mixes were dreadful, the song choices were really bad and the music was WAY too loud. I know it's a club setting but it could have been a LITTLE quieter. DH is a DJ so it was the worst for him, haha. Either way, our parents & grandparents were not having a good time so we all went to the kareokee. Our group took over the place and it was so much fun. Who would have thought kareokee reception? haha. Oh well, it worked. I went to bed at 1:00ish, still sick, and DH and the wedding party partied into the night and only got back at about 5:00.

- I met Erin She was beautiful and really sweet.

In the end, the wedding was so beautiful. EVERYONE cried at the ceremony. My grandpa, who's in a wheelchair walked me down the aisle (actually getting up for 3 steps at the end, with my help). My mom said it was the most romantic wedding she'd ever been too.

I'll leave you guys with one picture from our TTD. We did pics on horses, then went to a waterfall, and then were supposed to go to Nigrel (stupid being sick), instead I slept for 4 hours then we did beach pics on the resort beach. Anyways, here is one of our photogs fav (and the only pic I've seen so far!!). Any questions ladies, please let me know

I said "yes" again to the love of my life at Grand Coral Beach Club, Playa del Carmen, Mexico on our 4th anniversary - October 20, 2015

I don't remember the ministers name off the top of head, DH may though. He spoke with him before the ceremony, I was getting ready

We all went to the Grill for one dinner. It was nice, but the Italian was a lot more private. The food was good at both restaurants.

Originally Posted by acw271011

Congrats tris... your pic is gorgeous!! sorry to hear you were ill. that always sucks on vacation but even more for your wedding. glad that everything went well. your review is fantastic and it's great to know that GBPJ is so helpful. very reassuring for those of us still waiting for our day...

when did you get to meet with the minister to talk about your ceremony? what was his name? Chandlyn gave me something, and now I can't find it, about "Owen", not sure if that's the first or last name but I seem to remember somebody on here some time back talking about him and that he was really great.

did any of your guests try the Garden Grill? that's where we're having our reception but I haven't seen much about it here. my FI is not a fan of italian, so it wasn't an option for us but I can't seem to get any reviews of the restaurant...

anyway, congrats. glad it all worked out and I hope you're feeling better!!

Married my best friend 04/28/11 at the Gran Bahia Principe Runaway Bay

Tris - you looked so gorgeous - congratulations!! You would never know you were sick.... It sucks, but I'm glad you still enjoyed your day! My hubby had sun stroke the day of our wedding as well.... We didn't see each other all day leading up to the wedding, and he tried to hide it from me during/after the wedding. He was very convincing, until our meal when he threw up on the floor behind the head table!!! He bounced back pretty quick (except for a few more episodes in the bushes when I took him up to our room to get cleaned up), and it's a good thing he doesn't embarrass easily! Now we just look at it as a good story!

The minister is Reverend Owen Wilson, and he is amazing!

The Grill had really good food - we had our "rehearsal dinner" there the night before the wedding, and there was another wedding going on at the same time. They were just at a table in the middle of the restaurant cause there are no semi-private rooms in there, but they didn't seem bothered by the rest of the us....

I am also back from a week in paradise! Like Tris said dont worry mon! haha Everything went as we expected and was amazing. We had our dinner at the Italian and it was very private and the food was DELICIOUS....our guests are still talking about it. Again, if you have any questions let me know.

I also met Missy there, one drunken night and she was so nice and beautiful, she was getting married on Sat when I left.

This is the only pic I have so far as our photographer said it would take about 4 weeks to get the professional ones, this one was taken from a friend.

Congrats Tris and Katelynn!! Its sounds like both of your days were perfect and you both looked amazing! Love the horses Tris, hadn't even thought of that but what a great idea. Thanks for your detailed review Tris and ni can't wait to see more pics from you both. Congrats ladies!!

yes - that's the name!! did you get to meet with him before hand? I know we won't want anything too religious, but for the sake of a couple of our guests if they go, we'll need a little bit of something thrown in.

oh god - if that was me, I'd be throwing up along side him... I've raised kids and I just can't stand being around anyone sick. I'm right in there with them!!!!

I don't care about the privacy part. I figure I still have time and maybe I can convince the other half that the italian is a good idea. I saw the pics of the Grill and it looks really nice... and BIG!! that's why I figured it wouldn't be a problem.

Originally Posted by lsmith211

Tris - you looked so gorgeous - congratulations!! You would never know you were sick.... It sucks, but I'm glad you still enjoyed your day! My hubby had sun stroke the day of our wedding as well.... We didn't see each other all day leading up to the wedding, and he tried to hide it from me during/after the wedding. He was very convincing, until our meal when he threw up on the floor behind the head table!!! He bounced back pretty quick (except for a few more episodes in the bushes when I took him up to our room to get cleaned up), and it's a good thing he doesn't embarrass easily! Now we just look at it as a good story!

The minister is Reverend Owen Wilson, and he is amazing!

The Grill had really good food - we had our "rehearsal dinner" there the night before the wedding, and there was another wedding going on at the same time. They were just at a table in the middle of the restaurant cause there are no semi-private rooms in there, but they didn't seem bothered by the rest of the us....

I said "yes" again to the love of my life at Grand Coral Beach Club, Playa del Carmen, Mexico on our 4th anniversary - October 20, 2015

I am also back from a week in paradise! Like Tris said dont worry mon! haha Everything went as we expected and was amazing. We had our dinner at the Italian and it was very private and the food was DELICIOUS....our guests are still talking about it. Again, if you have any questions let me know.

I also met Missy there, one drunken night and she was so nice and beautiful, she was getting married on Sat when I left.

This is the only pic I have so far as our photographer said it would take about 4 weeks to get the professional ones, this one was taken from a friend.

I said "yes" again to the love of my life at Grand Coral Beach Club, Playa del Carmen, Mexico on our 4th anniversary - October 20, 2015